Matt Boldy finishes eighth in Calder Trophy voting

Matt Boldy was robbed.

Despite being a late call-up — playing only 47 games with the Minnesota Wild — Boldy led with 0.83 points per game amongst rookies with 15+ games. Fifteen goals and 24 assists were not good enough to receive any first-place votes or second-place votes in the eyes of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Boldy did nab two third-place votes, finishing behind the likes of 25-year-old Tanner Jeannot of the Nashville Predators (24 goals and 17 assists in 81 games) and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Michael Bunting, a 26-year-old with 105 NHL games with two different teams and the benefit of playing with Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.

After joining the team, Boldy developed instant chemistry with Kevin Fiala and Frederick Gaudreau, providing the Wild with a third high-end line behind Kirill Kaprizov’s unit and the GREEF unit of Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno.

With the cap crunch coming, the developmental leaps and bounds made by Boldy in his first season mean that he is poised to strive in the more significant role that he will no doubt find himself in next season.

It might even mean those around the league will notice a young forward tallying nearly a point-per-game in only 15 minutes of ice time.